Science does not seem to be so far from finally finding life on another world. There is a system of seven exoplanets, 39 light years away, called TRAPPIST-1 in which, at least, there could be liquid water.
This system of seven exoplanets was discovered in 2015 and has since become the focus of attention by scientists, since at least four of the seven worlds are located in the living area.
The central star, TRAPPIST-1, is known to be an ultracool dwarf that, despite its small size comparable to Jupiter, is considerably more massive. Its low temperature causes it to emit mainly light in the infrared range, making it difficult to detect using conventional methods.
The seven exoplanets orbiting Trappist-1 have been named Trappist-1b, Trappist-1c, Trappist-1d, Trappist-1e, Trappist-1f, Trappist-1g and Trappist-1h. These rocky planets are similar in size to Earth, raising the fascinating possibility that they could harbor liquid water on their surfaces and, potentially, conditions conducive to life as we know it.
New observations of TRAPPIST-1 with the James Webb Space Telescope
Scientists of the Cornell Universityfind surprising new data about this exoplanet system, thanks to observations from the James Webb Space Telescope, review GIVES.
They say on their website that, first of all, they were able to observe data such as “the stellar evolution of Earth's planetary atmospheres, including atmospheric escape, ocean loss, and abiotic oxygen production,” they reported.
“While most previous studies use a single host star luminosity evolution, we incorporate observational uncertainties in stellar mass, luminosity evolution, system age, and planetary parameters to statistically explore the plausible range of results. planetary atmospheric exhaust“, they added.
They explain that with the latter they try to observe in detail the density of the atmospheres to find out if they lose a lot of water after the interaction they make with the massive star. That allows them to see how much water each world could have.
In fact, they find that “if TRAPPIST-1b is airless while TRAPPIST-1c has a tenuous oxygen atmosphere, as suggested by the initial JWST observations, then our models predict an initial content of surface water from 8.2 Earth's oceans for these worlds, leading to the outer planets retaining 1.5 Earth's oceans after entering the habitable zone. Even if TRAPPIST-1c had no air, surface water on the outer planets would not be excluded.”